Sunday, November 6, 2016

Sorcera's Sucky First Draft

First drafts suck. And it's okay.
The first draft of Sorcera sucked, and that's okay.
I think it's really important to make things that aren't amazing. Actually, the act of making thing at all, even if it's shit, is pretty amazing. To make something that doesn't suck is even better. But at some point, all of us kind of suck, and for me, that was the first draft of Sorcera (and many other first drafts, but we can get into that later, maybe). So now, I want to share with you the shitshow that was the first draft of Sorcera, and laugh about it together. Just cuz that makes me happy.

1. The coven lived in a giant magical library in NYC, similar to Grimmauld Place.

Okay, Sorcera did start out as a 9th grader's magical fantasy, so it's kind of okay. But it was an obvious ripoff of Harry Potter, and I never even explained how they'd gotten the place. It was huge, but the hugeness was useless, as things only ever really happened in the lobby, kitchen, and bedrooms. Characters could go hide somewhere if they were mad. And the library wasn't even magic itself; it was just a regular, big building with marble walls. Which is pretty. But useless. Especially when a large space like that would be expensive and/or useless in NYC.

2. Nicole was a total asshole.

One of my main characters, Nicole, was meant to be the leader of the group. However, other than her saying she was the leader a lot, she never acted like one. And she yelled at people all the time. Originally she was based off me, so I'm really distressed about how she turned out that way. Check out this quick excerpt:
Nicole stepped backwards at the words, grimacing.
“What do you mean, we’re next? We don’t even know you!” She argued. 
Why so aggressive, Nicole? Why so annoying, all the time? She was constantly defensive, two-dimensional, and just plain boring. Luckily, I managed to fix her up in future drafts.

3. Miles existed.

If you read the first draft of Sorcera, you'd be surprised to meet a character named Miles, an entirely bland shop owner who provided Sorcera with tips and tricks for surviving Storm. Not only was Miles uninteresting, everyone who read the story kind of hated him. He also was a love interest for a character who is about as into men as cats like dogs--their relationship did not work. 

4. The villains were two-dimensional.

I had a big problem in my first draft: the coven Sorcera faces, Storm, was filled with the exact same character. A weird, twisted, but beautiful villainess who liked to tease the heroes. It was excruciating to reread, and just plain confusing when they all talked together. In my second draft, I've worked to make them more like individuals, and they've been much more fun to write. 

I decided to mention all of these because I think it's important to realize what things work and what things don't, and it's also important to be able to laugh at yourself sometimes! It was good work for where I was then, but now I've improved immensely. I like looking back and seeing how far I've come.

So what do you think of your first draft of your current work in progress? What have you changed? 

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

How to Write a Killer 5-Paragraph Essay

While I do have plenty of things to work on as a student, and of course I can always improve, I do consider myself to be quite a good essay writer–all my teachers have tended to give me quite good marks on them. So I thought that I might share some tips and techniques with you all! Under the cut you will find my method for writing essays, as well as some tricks I use to get better grades on them. :P This format works especially well for persuasive essays, literary analysis, and generally any essay you would write 5-paragraph form, though of course you can adjust my setup in a way that works for you. Hope this is helpful!

Step One: Outlining
Before writing any essay, I write a highly detailed outline. This outline might as well be the actual essay–this means that writing my essay will be incredibly easy once it comes to that. I start out with this skeleton:
  1. Introduction
    1. Thesis:
  2. Paragraph 1: [Topic/Content]
  3. Paragraph 2: [Topic/Content]
  4. Paragraph 3: [Topic/Content]
  5. Conclusion
    1. Thesis:
I find it helpful to be able to see a complete outline of how my essay will look, like this, before I begin. Next, I fill out topics and thesis. In general, it’s not a great idea to decide a thesis until you’ve accumulated enough data/information/textual evidence, but sometimes I like to have a preliminary thesis that I can revise later.
  1. Introduction
    1. Thesis: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an incredible show because of its realistic characters, suspenseful writing, and use of the supernatural to represent and resolve real-life problems.
  2. Paragraph 1: Realistic Characters
  3. Paragraph 2: Suspenseful Writing
  4. Paragraph 3: Use of the Supernatural
  5. Conclusion
    1. Thesis: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an incredible show because of its realistic characters, suspenseful writing, and use of the supernatural to represent and resolve real-life problems.
From here, I begin to write any relevant information on all three of my main topics under paragraphs one, two, and three. Your informational bullets can be full sentences or just phrases and words that will jog your memory as you’re writing your essay–whatever works for you! You can also fill your conclusion and introduction sections with things like your introductory and concluding transitions and sentences.
Part Two: First Draft
I don’t have much to say on this topic other than use your outline! It’s okay to revise and cut things from your outline now and then to see if it makes it more readable. Don’t stress about how long or short your first draft is, since it’s a first draft. Just write!
Part Three: Second/Third/Fourth Draft
After you have a rough draft to work with, you can revise your essay to your liking. Here are some quick tips on how to revise–they’re tried and true!
  1. Read your essay paragraph by paragraph from the end to the beginning–you’re more likely to catch mistakes.
  2. Print out your essay and read it. Use a red pen!
  3. Have someone else read your essay.
  4. Read your essay out loud.
  5. Put your essay through Hemingyway App, an app that picks up long or confusing sentences and helps you fix them!
  6. Use PaperRater’s free paper grader.
Be sure to look over your work at least ONCE before turning it into your teacher or prof. However, also be sure not to over-analyze or over-edit! 
Welp, that’s all I have to say for now! If you have any questions, or if this helped you at all, feel free to comment below. Good luck!